[agracier]

... the key thing is to have very good textures like Mixx ones. You can spread cleverly different textures about the map using different techniques, but the thing that really makes the difference is having top notch textures as Mixx's... (and I think making textures is quite fun, actually) so I think I'm going to try to focus more on create good textures if I can, rather than apply them ...

You bet making textures is fun ... it's lovely to browse in Google Earth and happen upon useful and fascinating landscapes ... and I've also found that having a large collection of textures to choose from is more or less essential since going to look for specific textures on GE when you're making a map is an exercise in futility. You never find a good texture when you need one ... ha ha.

On another note on textures, making them seamless so they fit together nicely, I recently found software that does specifically that and nothing else. And this program works quite well for Il-2 purposes. It's a commercial program, though very cheap, more in the way of shareware. It is very useful and well worth the price. I've been using it for a short while now and the results on maps are very positive - almost no texture edges to be seen when flying ... it is much faster than trying to do it manually and better than the 'seamless texture' command in Paint Shop Pro ...

http://www.seamlesstexturegenerator.com/